Child Abuse and Neglect

News about Child Abuse and Neglect, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 31, 2015

One-year-old boy Gavriel Ortiz-Fisher dies after his mother, Latisha Fisher, locked him and herself in bathroom of Manhattan restaurant; employees were forced to manually unlock door after Fisher refused; police detain Fisher for questioning. MORE

Mar. 26, 2015

Polish former priest Wojciech Gil is sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually abusing eight children in Poland and the Dominican Republic. MORE

Mar. 21, 2015

Polish priest Rev Wojciech Gil offers to serve seven-year jail sentence for crimes including moslestation of young boys in Poland and Dominican Republic; under Polish law a defendant can offer to serve prison time for some crimes without admitting to guilt. MORE

Mar. 21, 2015

Police find bodies of five babies in house in southern France after man discovers one in cooler bag and calls police. MORE

Mar. 5, 2015

Editorial welcomes emerging consensus among lawmakers on new initiatives to confront domestic sex-trafficking in the United States; examines bills that would establish 'safe harbor' laws, provide new pool of financing for restitution, victim services and law enforcement, and begin prosecuting those who buy juvenile sex. MORE

Feb. 27, 2015

Report finds that British television host Jimmy Savile had freewheeling access in hospital where he sexually abused more than 60 patients over two decades. MORE

Feb. 27, 2015

Christen Dale is charged with manslaughter in beating death of her 3-year-old nephew Ethan Ali in Brooklyn. MORE

Feb. 26, 2015

Three-year-old boy Ethan Ali is found dead in his family's apartment in Brownsville, Brooklyn; no adults have yet been charged in death. MORE

Feb. 16, 2015

Allegations of sexual misconduct and child sex abuse against Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, revered imam in Elgin, Ill, have shaken insular Muslim community that prefers to handle its issues privately; accusations have highlighted divisions between cloistered portion of Saleem's followers and more assimilated generation that rejects notion of keeping such matters hidden. MORE

Feb. 15, 2015

Sexual assault case brought by Spanish man David Ramirez Castillo has become one of the most serious to emerge under Pope Francis, but has also come to symbolize church's more open and assertive approach under his tenure; allegations include child abuse, a sex ring and cover up involving as many as 10 priests; Francis encouraged Castillo to pursue his case after he contacted him personally, and then ordered investigation and complete transparency. MORE

Feb. 9, 2015

New York City's Children's Services Admin will expand training and services as part of $26.4 million initiative; agency, which has been criticized over child fatalities, will receive total allocation of $2.95 billion under Mayor Bill de Blasio's 2016 budget. MORE

Feb. 9, 2015

Substitute teaching assistant Maria Contreras is charged with sexually assaulting a mentally ill 14-year-old student at her apartment and at the Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters. MORE

Feb. 9, 2015

Jesse Wegman Editorial Observer argues that accused child molester Jesse Friedman deserves chance to prove his innocence after serving 13 years in prison; notes that numerous witnesses have recanted in the deeply-flawed case; urges Nassau County, NY, prosecutors to turn over evidence they say proves his guilt but which Friedman says will prove his innocence. MORE

Feb. 6, 2015

Paul Gadd, English singer widely known as Gary Glitter, is found guilty of sexually abusing three under age girls decades ago. MORE

Feb. 5, 2015

British government sharply criticizes authorities in town of Rotherham for failure to address sexual abuse ring perpetrated by gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani descent, from 1997 to 2013; says legislators' incompetence and denial damaged both child victims and Pakistani community, leading to increased racism and xenophobia. MORE

Jan. 17, 2015

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, fifth in line for British throne, is in news again as allegations resurface that he had sex with a minor, claim denied by Buckingham Palace; incident highlights larger issue of how royal family members who have no real likelihood of gaining throne can make a life for themselves without any defined public role. MORE

Jan. 17, 2015

Reputation of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is experiencing revival almost three years after his death and following public disgrace he suffered after it was revealed that his longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky sexually molested boys; NCAA agrees to restore 111 victories that were invalidated after scandal, restoring Paterno's record as major-college football coach with highest number of victories. MORE

Jan. 8, 2015

New York City's Homeless Services Dept, as part of effort to end child abuse fatalities, is dispatching social workers to visit high-risk families living in homeless shelters to asses their histories and provide more support services. MORE

Jan. 6, 2015

Rev Robert Harrison, Capuchin priest and assistant principal at Cardinal Hayes High School in Bronx, is dismissed after admitting he sexually abused about 10 minors in New York region and Milwaukee in 1970's and 1980's; school's president sends letters to parents saying no abuse involved students at Cardinal Hayes. MORE

Jan. 4, 2015

Court filing in civil case in Florida alleges that businessman Jeffrey E Epstein, who has pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution, forced underage girl to have sexual relations with several other men, including Prince Andrew and Alan M Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School; both men have denied accusations. MORE

Dec. 27, 2014

Jagsheer Singh, Queens man charged with beating his 4-month-old son Nevin Janduher, will face more serious charges after boy dies. MORE

Dec. 23, 2014

Poland halts inquiry of former Vatican ambassador Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who has been accused of sexually abusing boys while serving in Dominican Republic, due to fact that Dominican investigators have not responded to requests for materials and evidence. MORE

Dec. 16, 2014

NFL Players Association sues the NFL on behalf of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson; argue his suspension for remainder of season for beating his 4-year-old child is unfair and that Commissioner Roger Goodell's handling of case is arbitrary and biased. MORE

Dec. 13, 2014

Arbitrator Harold Henderson upholds season long suspension given to Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who had been arrested and accused of beating his 4-year-old son; ruling is a much needed victory for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, whose authority was overruled in Ray Rice case. MORE

Dec. 12, 2014

Independent investigation finds Bob Jones University told sexual abuse victims they were to blame for their situations, some of which took place for long periods of childhood; report says university actively advised victims not to report such incidents to police; respondents to confidential survey detailed hurtful, often startling treatment by the evangelical Christian institution. MORE

Dec. 6, 2014

Police in Los Angeles open investigation into Judy Huth's claims that Bill Cosby molested her in 1974 when she was 15 years old; Huth is suing Cosby for sexual battery. MORE

Dec. 2, 2014

Joe Nocera Op-Ed column revisits child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, observing disclosed emails show that the NCAA was guilty of overreach when it imposed harsh penalties; holds because organization blamed abuse on college's 'football culture,' it created false sense of victimhood in Penn State community and distracted from the true victims of sexual abuse; calls incident yet another example of the NCAA's poor and often hypocritical oversight. MORE

Nov. 24, 2014

Pedro Rosales and Jessica Aguilar of Brooklyn are both charged with reckless endangerment in connection with accidental shooting of their 9-month-old daughter in their home; Rosales was cleaning a gun in family's apartment when it fired accidentally and struck infant, who underwent surgery and is expected to survive. MORE

Nov. 22, 2014

Settlement is announced in which Los Angeles Unified School District will pay $139 million to end all remaining litigation involving elementary school teacher Mark Berndt, who was convicted of committing numerous counts of lewd conduct against his students. MORE

Nov. 22, 2014

Ashley Ramirez, mother of 3-year-old Poseidon Quinones, who was beaten to death in home of his paternal grandmother, demands investigation into New York City Administration for Children’s Services and circumstances that led to killing; grandmother's husband Fernando Yensi has been charged in child's death; agency officials say they are reviewing the case but prohibited from making comments. MORE

Nov. 21, 2014

Bronx man Fernando Yensi is charged with manslaughter in connection with fatal beating of his wife's 3-year-old grandson Poseidon Quinones. MORE

Nov. 20, 2014

Brooklyn girl Thaiya Spruill-Smith dies after being taken off life support; had remained in medical limbo for days after being declared brain-dead as her parents tried to reach consensus on whether her organs should be donated. MORE

Nov. 19, 2014

Terrell Smith, father of 2-year-old Thaiya Spruill-Smith, victim of assault to which her stepfather David Adams confessed, prevails in case over fate of his daughter's organs, keeping her body intact; Spruill-Smith was declared brain-dead but was kept on life support as Smith and her mother Teoka Spruill argued over whether her organs should be donated. MORE

Nov. 19, 2014

NFL suspends Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson for at least the remainder of 2014-15 season without pay; decision comes two weeks after Peterson pleaded no contest to excessively disciplining his 4-year-old child with a small tree branch. MORE

Nov. 18, 2014

Judge orders Brookdale University Hospital in Brooklyn to keep toddler Thaiya Spruill-Smith on life support as her parents argue over whether her organs should be donated; she was declared dead after injuries apparently caused by stepfather David Adams, who is likely to see assault charges against him upgraded to murder; child's father, Terrell Smith, had been fighting her mother, Teoka Spruill, for custody. MORE

Nov. 17, 2014

Two-year-old Brooklyn girl Thaiya Spruill-Smith remains hooked up to machines despite having been declared legally dead two days earlier, amid dispute between her parents over organ donation; Teoka Spruill, her mother, wants daughter's organs to help other children, while Terrell Smith, her father, argues that it would be desecration; Spruill-Smith died two days after being violently shaken by David Adams, her stepfather. MORE

Nov. 17, 2014

Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings running back who was suspended after allegations of child abuse, faces long path to reinstatement, complicated by NFL's complex process. MORE

Nov. 16, 2014

New York City police are investigating death of 3-year-old boy Poseidon Quinones in Bronx after his grandmother found him unconscious in his bed; separate investigation is being conducted in assault of 2-year-old Thaiya Spruill-Smith by her stepfather, incident that left her on life support. MORE

Nov. 14, 2014

Sexual abuse charges are dropped against Mathe Thomsen, former intern at International Preschools in Manhattan; five-month investigation by Manhattan district attorney's office failed to find evidence to support case and videos shot by Mariangela Kefalas, teacher who reported Thomsen to police, do not show criminal conduct. MORE

Nov. 14, 2014

Parents prosecuted for accidentally killing their children by leaving them in hot cars have had widely varying experiences with justice system; Kyle Seitz of Ridgefield, Conn, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, raising question of whether death of child is punishment enough for grieving parent. MORE

Nov. 13, 2014

Kyle Seitz is arraigned on charges of criminally negligent homicide in the death of his 15-month-old son Benjamin, who perished after being left in hot car for more than eight hours in Ridgefield, Conn; newly released arrest warrant details Seitz's activities on fatal day in which he forgot to drop Benjamin at day care and left him in parking lot while he attended work. MORE

Nov. 12, 2014

Kyle Seitz, father of 15-month-old boy who died after being left in hot car in Ridgefield, Conn, turns himself in after being charged with negligent homicide. MORE

Nov. 7, 2014

Shanesha Taylor, Phoenix mother who was charged with felony child abuse after leaving her children in a hot car while she went to a job interview, misses deadline to establish trust funds for the children; prosecutor had agreed to dismiss charges if Taylor set aside money she had received in private donations after her arrest. MORE

Nov. 7, 2014

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, following through on pledge by Cardinal Francis E George, releases thousands of internal documents detailing decades of sexual abuse by its priests; there are complaints against 36, many of whom are now dead and none of whom remain in active ministry; nearly all the alleged abuse took place decades ago. MORE

Nov. 5, 2014

NFL Roundup; Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson agrees to plea bargain, reducing his felony child-abuse charges to a single charge of reckless assault; other football news noted. MORE

Nov. 2, 2014

Case of Shabir Ahmed, delivery driver in Rochdale, England, who was charged, tried and convicted of rape and abetting rape of at least 47 British girls, focuses attention on issues of race and ethnicity; his case and other similar cases shed light on how grooming gangs work and how they have contributed to a broader pattern of sexual abuse of children often by powerful and influential citizens. MORE

Oct. 28, 2014

Defense lawyer for Gigi Jordan, on trial for fatally poisoning her 8-year-old son, makes an impassioned plea to jurors to convict her of manslaughter rather than murder; Jordan admitted on witness stand that she intentionally gave her son a fatal overdose of drugs at Manhattan's Peninsula Hotel in 2010, but described it as a mercy killing to save her son from continued abuse at the hands of her second husband. MORE

Oct. 26, 2014

Mullah Mohammad Amin is sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping 10-year-old girl in his mosque in Afghanistan; girl's father and woman's rights activists say sentence is a disappointment, and Mullah Amin should have received the death penalty. MORE

Oct. 26, 2014

Philip Galanes Table For Three column on interview with actress Julianna Margulies and Senator Kirsten Gillbrand, who share a fierce determination to free women from harassment and children from sexual abuse. MORE

The informant, Jeffrey Rothschild, said he had worked with federal prosecutors in 1991 to get information about a convicted child molester and his relationship with Etan Patz, who was 6 when he disappeared.

A Polish priest accused of sexually abusing minors in Poland and in the Dominican Republic offered to serve a seven-year jail sentence as his trial opened on Friday, according to a spokeswoman for a regional court in Warsaw.